STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University football coach Dan Mullen is concerned his players might struggle preparing for their first road game of the season at 6 p.m. Saturday at Troy University.
While MSU has basked in the glow of a 28-10 victory against Auburn University the past week, Troy has 13 players on its roster who were told they weren’t talented enough to play for a Southeastern Conference team.
“You have an SEC team coming in here for the first time in school history,” defensive lineman Tony Davis told The Montgomery Advertiser. “There’s so much at stake. We have to get the job done.”
In an attempt to keep his players focused, Mullen has referred them to the 2010 season when MSU defeated the University of Georgia to improve to 2-0.
“We talked about that that sweet taste of victory Saturday will turn into the most sour taste in your mouth if we don’t prepare properly this week,” Mullen said Monday. “If you don’t play your ‘A’ game, there’s no guarantee on any team in this country. You’ve got to come out and perform week in and week out. You’re looking at these 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids, how they practice is how they’re going to play, and the focus they’re going to have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, there’s not a team in the country that can just flick it on and say, here we are, we’re just going to perform on Saturday.”
Troy’s Veterans Memorial Stadium will play host to a SEC school for the first time since it opened in 1950. While Troy players are feeling the excitement of playing host to a SEC school, the Trojans (1-1) also are trying to recover from a loss to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
“I have to get over the funeral song before I can get into some excitement. I’ve never dealt with losses any differently,” Troy coach Larry Blakeney said. “There maybe is a little bit of fear mixed in, but fear has always been a great motivator.”
To prepare for its first road game, MSU continued the common routine of blasting music over the public address speakers at practice. Mullen said he refuses to make the same mistake he made more than 10 years ago as an offensive coordinator at Bowling Green State University, when his 23rd-ranked team lost at Northern Illinois because of mental mistakes due to the crowd noise.
“I learned early in my career not to take those games for granted,” Mullen said. “It was a big, big game. We got caught off guard. … No matter what stadium you’re going into, you’re preparing for it to be a very hostile environment.”
It will be the third time a team from a Bowl Championship Series conference has played at Troy. The University of Missouri (in 2004) and Oklahoma State University (2007) both lost.
“We understand Troy is really good opponent for any team, especially when you consider the speed and points they can put up on offense,” MSU senior Corey Broomfield said. “We’ll be prepared because we’re a veteran group, but our 24-hour rule on enjoying the Auburn win expired long ago.”
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